A few weeks ago, I posted about my experience on Klout.  My rating went from 10 to 50 in a span of 4 days, and I had literally done nothing on my Facebook.  I have been monitoring my Klout score and 3 other people’s scores.  Here are the final results.

Ginny  – was 50, now it is 47

Kerry – was 44, now it is 57

Jane – was 48, now it is 58

Scott – was 14, now it is 56

Here are a few things that they did that may have affected their scores.  I am not surprised to see mine go down, except that I added my LinkedIn account to it and that was when my score went down.  Kerry is on Twitter and Facebook all the time, so I wasn’t surprised to see her score go up.  Jane is always posting lifestyle stuff on her Twitter and Facebook, so again, her score should have gone up. And now, we come to Scott.

Scott started with a score of 14 and then sky rocketed to 61 and then dropped a little, but has stayed pretty much around 56 for the last month.  He has only linked his Facebook, as he doesn’t use any other social media platforms.  His last post on Facebook was September 17th.  He has done nothing on Facebook since then, and yet his score was at one point the highest.  Here is where I have issue with Klout.com.

I can’t figure out what they are basing it off of.  Do nothing and your Klout score goes up, do something and your Klout score goes up.  Perhaps when you initially sign up it  takes a few days for Klout to go through your posts on Facebook for the last while and that’s why it jumps so significantly.  I’m not sure that it is an accurate enough platform to use as a tool for hiring people.   It is not consistent enough when it comes to measuring klout.  I’m going to give Klout a score of 20.  Fun idea, but needs some work.

As 2014 is winding down, I thought it would be fun to check out the best social media campaigns of 2014.  I will list my 3 favorites, and hopefully you’ll be enticed to check out all 30.

1.  Samsung celebri-tweet.  Remember Ellen Degeneres’ Oscar selfie with other famous faces like Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts.  This was a genius ploy to get Samsung’s name all over the web, as users of twitter re-tweeted that photo so many times it ended up crashing Twitter.

2. Samuel Adams Helium Beer.  April Fools Trick that went down like gangbusters on YouTube.  The premise:  Samuel Adams added Helium to their beer to give it a lighter taste in your mouth.  Their 1:27 video has had over 600,000 views.

3. Virgin Airlines April Fools on YouTube.  The video has Richard Branson talking to the owner of Nest who they say they have teamed up with to give customers the ultimate experience 35,000 feet in the air.  Featuring Climate Controlled Flights, each seat can give you the experience of a windy day in Chicago or a beachy tropical feel at the twist of a gauge.

These were my favorites, but I feel that one a little closer to home should have been featured in this list.  Westjet has been using YouTube for different campaigns for Christmas, Father’s Day, April Fools, etc.  Here are the links to some great social media campaigns.  My sister works for Westjet and she told me that they hoped to get about 100,000 views.  In the end they had over 36,000,000 views and ended up on the cover of People’s online magazine.  A little campaign that a huge impact. This gave Westjet a really personal brand feel and shows how much they care about their guests.  Love it.

1. Christmas Miracle

2. Child Free Cabins – April Fools

3.  Father’s Day

This link will let you read the entire article of the top 30.  Great read. http://ow.ly/EqRVZ

Some say that Facebook doesn’t hold any real staying power, just like it’s predecessors, for example Friendster, Classmates and MySpace.  It was the new thing and someday it will be replaced with the ever changing social media platform trends.  However, I read something this week that shows it still holds some sway against it’s platform competitors.

Last week, Sean Smith, a man from Port Alberni posted a Facebook message to BC Ferries.  It was in response to the possibility of BC Ferries shutting down their Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay (Nanaimo) Ferry route. He publicly called BC Ferries out and offered his suggestions on how they could save money.  In fact, he says that they don’t need a marketing department….they need a social media department.  His post has been liked over 10,000 times and has also had over 7,000 shares.  In fact, his post, which I suspect he never thought would have so much impact, received a direct response from BC Ferries explaining their ideas for suggesting it.

You never know when your rant could go viral.  Is this the way to keep corporations in check?  Perhaps.

Read the full article here, which includes the Facebook Post and BC Ferries full response.  http://ow.ly/EmPPp

Something that I have run into on this journey with e-marketing, is that sometimes people are unwilling to accept your help or suggestions.  It’s not always easy. Are they listening to your recommendations when you work with certain companies? They have their own idea of how and what works best.  So, how do you convince people that your ideas might actually help?  I have a few ideas about this.

1.  Communicate your idea clearly.

Put together a really carefully worded document that explains everything step by step with reasons for every step.  Respond to their questions before they even ask it.

2.  Don’t let them focus on the fact that you are a student.

Students have a wealth of knowledge that they might not know they possess.  Although I am not necessarily your average student, being slightly older, but I think that students today hold the key to information that every business would love to have.  The older generation are desperate to figure out how this generation thinks, because social media is really used by those in there early twenties and businesses want to know how those kids think and why they like what they like.  Tell them what you think.

3.  Don’t be afraid to push.

if you are worried about being forceful, don’t. That older generation is used to people talking to them that way.  They deal better with forthright speaking and communication.  I have seen it often in my workplace.  It is better to be transparent and say what you think than miss out on your opportunity because you danced around the subject.

This is just another thing I think about things.